Ion 417: Raiju

by James Darcey

  While waiting for that I had to thinly slice some fish from the chilled cabinet, which I know I was doing badly at from the strained grin on her face. Slicing vegetables went better, but twice I had to dump what I'd cut, and rinse my hand until the bleeding stopped. Both times I had to assure her that it was only a minor cut. I'd seen her cutting that first night, and her knife moved at a blurring pace.

  I remember thinking that simple rice balls would be easy, until I was actually making them. That vendor didn't charge enough for the hard work that goes into forming them. Press them firmly, but not too firmly around the center chunk, forming it into a lovely triangle that looks like a rock instead. I could hear the stifled laughter from the stool behind me as I tried to keep the rice from squeezing out between my fingers. This was going to take a lot of practice, not to mention enduring the laugh as I wound up with rice stuck to my nose.

  Under her guidance I carefully arranged the food into the basket she had prepared, and topped it with a large folded cloth. Everything had a specific place to be, and somehow it fit without the need to squish it into place. So much more work than the food packages, but much more satisfying to have done it all myself.

  The walk up the path in daylight was much better than driving it in the middle of the night. The trees were giving it just enough shade from the sun that it felt nice and cool. They also blocked out the city sprawled below the mountain giving it the feel of seclusion and life. Every moment spent on this wonderful green world made me detest that cold orbital station even more.

  The stone shapes that had glinted in the bike's headlight last night were actual lanterns set along the path. Sakura told me that when the temple was running, the priests would light them each night for people to walk the path. I could see that several of them had been broken.

  She just sighed at my comment, "They haven't brightened the path for nearly twenty years. It seems useless to repair them when the temple is long gone. Very few make the trip to pray for their pets anymore."

  "Pets?"

  "Animal companions that people live with. The temple honored an inugami that stood as protector of the forest and pets."

  "What happened?"

  "The last priest died without a disciple to take his place. Now the belief is fading it seems. Very few make the venture anymore."

  We passed by a few women out picking berries that grew wild beside the path. They seemed harmless enough, but it was a reminder that people did wander up this path. It wouldn't take much for them to climb to the top like Hiro and Sai had done. If they did that, then they'd have to tell somebody about the big blue starship sitting in the grass there. Sakura seemed to know every one of these ladies, and insisted on introducing me to them.

  The path ended at the crumbling gates. Twin stone pillars rose from the wall, to be topped with a double top crossbar. The remains of simple wooden gates hung from rusting hinges. Only one of the halves was actually still attached, and it had been decorated more recently by swirls of color, like stylized kanji. The bright reds, blues, and black clashed with the underlying faded yellow. Sakura scowled at the mark calling it graffiti. If I read the one right, it said something about mating a cat, but that made no sense whatsoever.

  As we stepped through the gate, the ship was immediately visible. The bright blue stood out boldly from the green and brown of the courtyard and surrounding forest. The sun was reflecting on the emblem, making the lightning wreathed comet gleam as if it flew through space. I hope Lafiel really likes her colors.

  "Denkou Suisei, the lightning comet. How appropriate. I never imagined it would be so large."

  "It's a lot smaller that some of the ships I saw along the way. The Reliance Guard Cruiser dwarfed it."

  "This is what you wanted to make a dress for?"

  "Somehow drape fabric over it; but yes, I need to hide it."

  "That will take a whole fabric shop to cover it."

  "I know that it's bigger than your house. It was difficult to find a place to land it that was out of the way. I certainly didn't wish to land in a populated area and squish people beneath it. Bad first impression."

  Tapping the comm, I called Lafiel to let her know that we were coming aboard. Her instant answer told me that she had been watching us approach through the gate, "She looks like a bigger version of the little girl."

  "Except Saiyuki didn't have her arm in a brace."

  "What happened to her?"

  "Remember how I said there had been an incident at the robotic demonstration?"

  Lafiel's voice carried her concern, "To quote you, you said a little excitement. You didn't mention anyone else getting severely wounded. Hurry and bring her inside. Maybe we can do something for her."

  "We'll be there soon enough. I don't want to rush her."

  I took the time as we strolled through the tall grass of the courtyard to look at the building that dominated it. The signs were there that this had once been a grand place. Weather and neglect had taken their toll on it, as had more recent visitors with paint. A pathway of flat stones kept the grass from completely isolating the old temple.

  I heard the sigh from Sakura as she looked around, "Seeing it this way shames my memories. It has been many years since last I visited this place. I let other things distract me more and more from it until I stopped coming all together. Did you know that there used to be an annual festival for the migrating spirits to welcome them with a place to rest?"

  "Traveling what? Beings of dreams?"

  "I guess that's one way to call them. Spirits -- beings that aren't really here in this world, and yet touch it. This temple hosted the forest spirits to guard the spirits of the villager's pets. That part that remains after the body has died. The priests had a shrine to the Inugami that was believed to guard the area."

  "The things I have studied could never agree on something existing after the body ceased to breathe."

  "It's the same here on Earth. Nobody can prove whether spirits exist or not, but who wants an angry ghost if they are wrong?"

  "Why has nobody returned to care for this temple?"

  "Only the local people knew it was here, and the new priests all go to more famous places."

  Our discussion came to an end with the sight of Panzo coming down the ramp. Sakura was walking a bit stiffly, so we curtailed the greetings for getting her up to the common room. I had expected to find the others waiting there, since I'd been gone all night, but it was only Lafiel's holo lounging in a chair reading an upside-down magazine. The title on the cover said something about Kanari fashions, but I saw the edges of another book tucked inside it.

  Lafiel had seen my glance, "He went running through the trees, Again. You know he found a tunnel, right?"

  Sakura bowed to Lafiel's image and responded, "I'm so sorry, but I do not speak your star language."

  I laughed a little as I carried on the translation and greetings, "This is Lafiel. She was telling me that the other member of the crew was out wandering through the trees, and he seems to have found a tunnel."

  "Will I get to meet them in person?"

  I waved a hand toward Lafiel's holo, "This is the closest you can get to Lafiel. Her core is sealed away in the middle of the ship, where she serves as the navigational AI. I mean not non-artificial AI." Extending the wave to the other Kanari, I added, "You've already met Panzo. He's an engineer. I don't know if Traxel will return soon or not."

  Sakura glanced toward him, "This Panzo is the one who put on the show of being an Inugami, and frightened the police."

  I nodded agreement, and shifted to Indigal for Panzo, "She says you made a great Inugami, but frightened the local law enforcement."

  He curled the tip of his nose, "A what?"

  "It's something of a dog ghost spirit that guards a place. In fact this place we landed in, used to be a temple to such a being."

  He turned to Sakura and twitched his ears in greeting, "It is good to see you again in someplace that doesn't resemble a cage. Why is your arm bundled li
ke that?"

  I translated his greeting to her, and turned back to answer him, "I told you there had been some excitement yesterday. She got caught in it and doesn't seem to heal as fast as I do. On a brighter note; we brought food."

  I began setting out the dishes that I had prepared under Sakura's watchful eye on the table for our picnic. She begged forgiveness for not helping, and asked if she could use the toire as it had been a long walk. I told her there was a sanitation unit in the corner of my cabin that she could use. I had gotten the dishes arranged in a nice setting that even made my rice balls look, well, not so bad, when she came out of my cabin coughing and gagging. That of course sent her into spasms of pain from her injuries as well.

  Between coughs she managed to spit out, "Your water... is... bad. Salty..."

  "I must offer my apologies. I hadn't thought to warn you about that. I like my water with a bit of mineral in it. Other water tastes just so bland that I had the engineers on Reliance install a special system just in my cabin. The water out here is normal."

  I helped her walk back to the common room as Panzo hurriedly shuffled the picnic over to the counter. By the time we got there he had shifted the table into bio bed mode, telling her to lie down. I wish I had thought of that. All that fuss with those crazy doctors when I could have brought her to this.

  She looked a little apprehensive as the arms swung over her. Taking a cue from Sakura, I made Panzo turn around so that I could pull her shirt off. I winced every time my movement brought a gasp from her, but I had to get it out of the way for the arms to work on her. Lafiel adjusted the settings to read for normal level with just treating the injuries.

  A few humming beeps later it had performed the full scan, and was processing the information to be able to treat her injuries. The display flickered over to 'Species 74729, Female, Adult', and the manipulators swung into action. Sakura yelped in surprise as the one centered on her ribs and the other hovered over her face.

  While the first was busily opening her side with a laser scapel, the other was misting a spray over her bruised face. Even as I watched, I could see the swelling vanish under the fine mist. It shifted tips into surgical mode, and aimed toward her abdomen. The display showed that it was removing a constriction there.

  For twenty minutes it fussed over Sakura, getting her ribs set with tiny clamps, removed some constriction it found, opened a blocked vein in her leg, and even tried to repair the holes in her ear before Lafiel stopped it.

  Lafiel's voice popped in: "Species 74729 original readings were taken seventy nine years ago. This file has been updated twenty four times, including one female with the same sub-genesis taken about twenty years ago. I guess we know who that is. I've updated the data to label you Human."

  Sakura had two tiny patches of pseudo derm where the clamps had been inserted, and all but the barest trace of pain was gone. She stretched both arms up, testing the movement as I helped get her shirt back on.

  "Will I now heal as fast as you? Did it make me different? How long before I turn green?"

  "You're still you, just healed of the injuries."

  The makings for the picnic were scattered along the length of the counter where Panzo had set them in his hurry. He was now trying to arrange them better, and doing his best to reassemble one of the rice balls that had begun to crumble. Sakura stood before Panzo and gave him a deep bow. For his part, Panzo was suitably surprised, and mumbled a hurried welcome and thanks. I think he even reddened a bit under his fur.

  Turning again to me, Sakura asked, "Then how did you become this somewhat yellowish-green? And you heal so fast without that machine."

  "You see, my major paternal component comes from, well..., an Andorian Eel -- which is why I'm a bit green and like salt. I'm just glad I didn't get the dagger teeth to go with it."

  "You didn't say anything about being part fish when you were cutting up the stuff for the picnic."

  "But I'm a Human!"

  She still kept looking at me while we ate some of the stuff I'd packed in the basket. A couple of times I turned to catch her looking at my ears or my hands even. It gave me the weirdest feeling. Other times I turned to find her staring at Panzo too, so it wasn't just me. After he had finished half the dish of sashimi, Sakura wanted to take some to Lafiel so that she wouldn't miss out.

  I once again found myself explaining that Lafiel really was real, despite not being physically present, and she was not some artificial contraption, "Despite being a real Kanari, like Panzo, she suffered an accident and is confined to a life support system. Her mind is connected into all the workings of the ship, so in essence she is the ship."

  We sat around talking for a while as Panzo told stories from Reliance. There were so many things I hadn't known before, about how he had modified skitters for his classmates in school, and spent all night once dismantling his father's new robot just because he was curious as to how it worked.

  I had to do all of the translating for the stories. Sakura was delighted with the tales, and complimented me on knowing two languages, as it seemed most people on this planet stuck with just one. I told her that in my captivity there had been little entertainment other than studying. I was actually fairly good at six languages, with knowledge of a few words in three others. I could get by on most of the civilized planets in this sector of the galaxy.

  "What do you mean civilized planets? Just how many places in the Galaxy have people?"

  I thought about it for a moment, "Well, I've been to two other places besides the dreadful orbital lab where I originated. From the things I studied I know of about two hundred worlds. Lafiel could answer that better as she has the star charts."

  Sakura waved her hand like she was fanning the thought away, "It's fine. I just never thought about how many other places could have people on them. Not once have any of them come to Earth to say konnichiwa."

  "Actually they have. At least twenty four times according to the bio-bed files. I'm living proof of at least one of those visits too."

  "Kidnapping young girls for wild experiments was not what I meant!"

  "I think maybe that the ones that have found this world have been keeping it a secret to themselves. It doesn't have much information in the star charts."

  Lafiel's holo was busy licking a milify stick when she popped up with a reminder, "Maybe we ought to do something about the chance of people seeing the ship. My sensors are picking up heat signatures nearing the top of that path. If I move the ship behind that building, it will hide most of it, and I can run the ECM enough to make us fuzzy when someone looks. It will just use a lot of our energy up."

  Since our pilot was off exploring places that he probably shouldn't, Lafiel took over the controls. We watched from the cockpit seats as Lafiel lifted us and eased the ship around to the rear of the buildings. She got it in as close as she dared. Now all that remained was to find the cloth to drape over it.

  I was going to need more currency to accomplish this task, so I pulled out several rolls of coins. These we took to the engineering room, and reformed into lumpy bars of about two kilo each. I figured twenty of those would be sufficient to purchase the cloth. Sakura thought one would be enough, but I didn't want to have too little. The tools in engineering made the defacing task much easier than hammering them in her garage had been.

  As I was pulling out the rolls, she had a chance to look around my cabin without all the coughing to distract her. Sakura became intrigued by one of the blue coral carvings that I'd gotten from the Nezumi. The little piece depicted a Nezumi swimming through a coral tree. The whole thing reminded her of a Ningyo, a legend from the fishing village where she had grown up. She looked through the other pieces with admiration, but her eyes kept going back to that one.

  I gave it to her as a token of my appreciation for everything, "You have helped me out so much that I feel you should have this. These are the people that helped me with my water system."

  Sakura had even gotten a look into the wardrobe at the cl
othes I'd bought on Reliance Station and Rage's moon. With a bit of pleading she convinced me to model some of them for her. It was the first time for anyone to see fashion from another star, and she absolutely loved them. She insisted that I should bring some of them to the house to wear.

  The one had about as much material as a bikini she said. That one I should save for the ocean. I had her assurance that they wouldn't mark me as an alien. When I tried on the ship suit from Rage's moon, she liked it so much that I kept it on with a scarf dress over the top.

  The variegated greens and yellows gave it an almost animalistic look. As a bonus I doubted the zipper would melt, since it had been designed for the rigors of space work.

  With the clothes bundled, and the ship moved, we said our goodbyes and headed for the gate. Taking another look at it, I thought it was a shame that the temple had been abandoned. The whole place blended in so well with the trees surrounding the compound that it felt like it belonged there.

  The walk back was just as nice as the trip up the path. I liked this place with its feel of living. The orbital lab had felt so lifeless, even discounting my status as a captive.

  "We should put some of that gold away so that it'll be safe."

  "You mean like leaving it in your house?"

  "Yes, wait..., that wouldn't be good either. People might come looking for it."

  "What about that bank place? This is a sort of currency after all."

  Sakura smiled, "That's probably the best idea for it. You already have an account, so they will even give you a better trade rate than the pawn dealer did."

  Sakura put away the fancy dress I'd worn, and left a note for the children in case they arrived before we returned. I insisted she take her medication for pain since the walk had left her a little tired. She dropped the bottle of pills into her purse along with the bottle of tanning. She laughed as she opened the purse again and removed the pills that she no longer needed. The work done by the bio bed was having a rapid effect.